Mission and values

The Mission

We are a telephone listening centre founded in 1971 – the first in Quebec. Tel-Aide’s mission is to offer a free listening service, in English and in French, which is anonymous, confidential and 24/7. Our service is accessible to everyone who suffers from loneliness or stress, who are emotionally distressed or angry, or who simply need to confide in someone who will listen without judgement.

In terms of numbers :

• Our service has received some two million calls since the beginning.
• In 2016 alone :
• some 100 volunteers
• responded to more than 22,500 calls
• offering some 11,494 hours of their time.

Keeping in mind the ever-growing magnitude of mental anguish and violence of many forms in the population at large, the Board is therefore even more aware of its duty to keep the mission alive and to promote it in the Montreal community.

The values

Tel-Aide’s philosophy is based on the respect, the empathy and the authenticity that we offer to our callers. We are guided by the school of thought – from humanist psychology – that maintains that every person has within him or herself the means to solve his or her own problems. Therefore, we allow our callers to say what they wish, in complete confidence, no matter which of our listeners is on the line.